The present invention relates to an air conditioner for a vehicle including a vehicle roof capable of opening, like a so-called open car.
Conventionally, the following air conditioner is known as an air conditioner of the open car.
Namely, it is the air conditioner in which there is provided a blowoff port to blow off a conditioned air toward foot portions of vehicle passengers on both side faces of a center console which is located between a driver seat and a passenger seat, and when a roof detecting switch detects opening of a vehicle roof, an air conditioning mode is changed to a roof-open mode and thus the conditioned air is blown off from the blowoff port toward the foot portions of passengers, thereby providing the passengers with comfortable feelings by reducing uncomfortable feelings due to cool air coming into a passenger compartment when the vehicle roof is open (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-12020).
Meanwhile, another type of air conditioner is also known, in which there is provided a state detecting means for detecting an open state of a folding top (vehicle roof), and when the state detecting means detects the folding top open, a blowoff port provided at a front header blows off some air so as to prevent open air outside from coming into the passenger compartment from the open roof during driving the vehicle, thereby performing an efficient air conditioning by the air conditioner (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 7-266841).
However, both of the above-described prior arts have a problem that respective characteristics of conditioned air for the driver seat and the passenger seat can not be adjusted separately (independently).
Namely, for the open car, an air conditioning control that can direct the conditioned air to the passengers directly is effective, and the control that can adjust the air conditioning separately for respective passengers on respective seats (a driver seat and a passenger seat, or a right seat and a left seat) is preferable to satisfy each passenger's needs when especially the vehicle roof is open. That is, when the vehicle roof is closed, the passengers on the both seats may enjoy properly the temperature (air conditioning condition) of the vehicle compartment together and thus there may be not any problems in particular in this case. However, the situation during the roof open should be different. That is why the above-described air conditioning control will be needed to the open car.